Various pack carriers are known for the packaging and transport of items such as bottles and cans of beverages like soft drinks and beer, or small electric light bulbs like those used on Christmas trees. These pack carriers usually encircle the neck of the item and are made of somewhat flexible plastic material or cardboard or other paper product. And it is believed that these pack carriers are filled or loaded manually, or the pack carrier is formed or shrunk around the item.
A novel type of pack carrier particularly adapted for storing and transporting a plurality of individual serving size, or larger, containers of, e.g., dietary formulations or nutritional supplements, or other liquid products, is described in to be pending U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,975. This pack carrier is characterized by having a longitudinal central section with a plurality of laterally extending, back to back, means for gripping and resiliently holding containers of uniform size and shape, typically four to eight containers per pack carrier. The means for gripping each container consists of a pair of opposed gripping members, each pair forming an opening for receiving and retaining a container. Such pack carriers are preferably formed of a durable polymeric composition so as to be reliable, durable and/or sterilizable and reusable. Suitable materials of construction for the pack carriers include clear polyethylene terephthalate glycol copolymer, high impact polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polyethylene terephthalate or other polymeric materials that are durable and suitable for molding the pack carrier in a single piece. The pack carriers may also be formed of a heavy gauge wire or light rod that is springy in character, usually of a ferrous metal. Such pack carriers are taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 331,194, 331,698, 331,699 and 332,401. An assembly of such a pack carrier and a plurality of containers is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 332,395.
It is desired to provide a suitable apparatus and method for high speed assembly of capped containers, filled with a liquid composition, into pack carriers with characteristics like or similar to those of the pack carriers described in the pending patent application and the various design patents. So far as is known, no such apparatus and method exist.